Hey all you prospective campers! We hope you're looking forward to camp as much as we are! Today in the blog we are on part 2/4 of our blog series highlighting this summer's conductors! Today features our band conductor Keith Hodgson!

Mr. Hodgson is the Director of Instrumental Music at Mainland Regional HS in Linwood, NJ where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, AP Music Theory and Freshman Seminar Technology classes. He is also the Director of the top Jazz Ensemble, TRI-M Music Honor Society and the Chamber Ensemble program. He has held the conducting post of the South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble since it’s founding in 1997, is an active guest conductor, clinician and guest speaker and Head Director of an annual three week summer European music tour. Keith is the Past President of the New Jersey Music Educator's Association, a National Board Certified Teacher, a Grammy Nominated Music Educator Quarter Finalist, and the recipient of the 2014 NJ Governor's Award in the Arts for Leadership in Music.

Here is our Q&A with Keith: 

What is your favorite color of bug juice?
Blue

What was your favorite performance as an instrumentalist/singer?
Any Laurel Concert!

What’s the best advice anyone has given you as an educator and/or conductor? 
“Teachers… Continue to polish your lantern, so others may follow it’s light.”

Name an interesting non-music hobby/interest
NBA Basketball

What is your favorite band/orchestra/jazz/choral piece?
All Mahler symphonies.

What is your favorite instrument?
French Horn!

What is your favorite European country?
Austria!

Thanks Keith! We can't wait to get playing with you this summer! Did we not ask your burning questions? Comment below, we'll try to get to them! Didn't register for camp yet? WELL GET ON IT!! Visit our Registration Page for more info. Check back in next week for a Q&A with our jazz band conductor, Gary Blu!

Welcome to part 1/4 of our blog series highlighting this summer's conductors! We are starting with our BRAND NEW choral conductor; Sarah Bowe! 

Sarah is a former Massachusetts music educator, holds a Masters in Choral Conducting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is completing her first year of doctoral study at Louisiana State University. Her past experience includes teaching secondary choir, band, classroom music, and music directing summer theatre productions. While at school in Louisiana, Sarah works as a section leader at St. Alban's Chapel in Baton Rouge, assists with the LSU Tiger Men's Glee Club, co-conducts the LSU Chamber Singers, mentors undergraduate conductors, and teaches undergraduate ear training. When not waving her arms around in front of a choir, she sings soprano!

We did a little Q&A via email with her so all you choir folk could find out a little bit about her! : 

What are you looking forward to in your first year?
-- Meeting all of the awesome staff and campers, learning the Laurel way of life, having fun, making music, and trying some blue bug juice!


What is your favorite color of bug juice?
-- RED! ...though I am keeping an open mind about this blue stuff I keep hearing about.

Name an interesting non-music hobby/interest. 
-- Bicycling. I don't own any of those funky "go fast" outfits, but my bike is my happy place. I commute by bike and spend my free time in Baton Rouge riding up and down the levee along the Mississippi. I try to rent a bike whenever I travel; it's one of my favorite ways to see the world. 

What was your favorite performance as an instrumentalist/singer?
-- One of my favorite performances is one that I luckily get to repeat every year. I sing in a massed choir in a cathedral in New York City every October, performing a piece called Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) for their St. Francis Day Celebration. It's amazing music, blending everything from Western classical to Afro-Cuban rhythms to animal calls. The cathedral (St. John the Divine) is an immense gothic masterpiece, and the combination of the music, the liturgy, and the space makes for a powerful experience. There's also an animal procession, so among other things, every year I get to sing for llamas. 


Thanks Sarah! We can't wait to get singing with you this summer! Did we not ask her your burning questions? Comment below, we'll try to get to them! Didn't register for camp yet? WELL GET ON IT!! Visit our Registration Page for more info. Check back in next week for a Q&A with our band conductor, Keith Hodgson!